Wordless Wednesday

Vesta Johnson at Tomb of Unknown Soldier
(photographed by Glen R. Johnson)
Original photo owned by Wendy Littrell (Address for Private Use)

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Wordless Wednesday – Prairie Chapel

Prairie Chapel Church & Cemetery
Coshocton, Ohio
Photographed by Gene Amore
Original owned by Wendy Littrell (address for private use)

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Wordless Wednesday – September 10, 2008

Caquot Balloon
USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio
Original photograph owned by Wendy Littrell (address for private use)

 

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What Were We Thinking?

The Smile For the Camera 5th Edition is Crowning Glory. “Show us those wonderful photographs of hairdos and maybe even a few don’ts. Don’t limit yourself to just hair fashion through the ages, got a great photograph of a hat, helmet, bonnet, or some other interesting headgear? Share!”

So to respond to that call here are some photographs.  I look at these and ask myself, “What were we thinking?”  I am even including some of my horrible hairstyles through the years (boy, my kids will get a big kick out of these!) and to show that even though they are humiliating, I am willing to Share! (How ’bout the rest of you out there?)

The picture on the left is my Aunt Marie back in the late 60′s at our home in Ohio.  Since we had a backyard pool, it was the rule that all girls and women had to wear a bathing cap so the hair wouldn’t accumulate in the filter and clog it up.  Aunt Marie liked her flowery bathing cap!

The picture to the right is one of my Dad back when he was either still in highschool or right after he graduated (1939).  It had to be before he enlisted in the Army Air Corps.  Look at that hair!  I guess I’m pretty biased – I think my dad is a good looking guy!

Ok – this is your’s truly in 2nd grade about 1968)!  I HATE this picture because my hair was cut a day or so before school pictures were taken.  This was one of the very last times I let my hair get cut this short!  Some people thought I looked like a boy!

The picture below is one of my favorite school pictures (especially the color version).  I was in Junior Highschool – I think 9th grade.  I’m wearing make-up and since I wasn’t allowed to wear make-up until I was a Freshman, I tend to think it was my last year at the Jr. High.  Notice the curls – that wasn’t easy to achieve with my naturally curly hair.  No matter how long I used the curling iron, my hair wants to curl the opposite way!  I also liked this picture because at 13, I looked much older (at least that’s what I was told) and back then I loved it when I looked older than I was (not so much anymore!).

To the left is a picture of my brother in the mid-50s in Japan.  Not sure what the sailor cap was all about (since my dad was Army Air Corps)!

The little girl with the huge bow in her hair is my great-grandfather’s sister, Eva.  This was probably taken about 1920 when she was about 10. 

Below is a picture of my maternal grandparents, Glen and Vesta (Wilt) Johnson.  I’m not sure if they were “courting” or already married at this point.  I just love the hats they are wearing!

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60s Television! (Freaky Friday – 5th Edition)

Since my week hasn’t slowed down any, I am submitting some photos for your viewing pleasure:

I’m in my Brownie uniform in the center of screen on the left

I’m on the lower right

The hosts of the show, Ken Hardin and Don ?, on the “Ken and Don Show” on the Dayton channel, WHIO, in the 1960s.  This show was broadcast after school and during the programs and cartoons, Ken and Don would tell jokes, play games with the audience, and other things to keep us entertained.  This was a venue for all the scout troops or other childrens’ groups in the community to attend.  I think our Brownie troop actually appeared on the show two years in a row. 

So why did I pick these pictures for the 5th edition of “Freaky Friday”?  Isn’t it sort of weird the things we did back then when we didn’t have VCRs or DVRs or Tivo?  We took pictures of the television!

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Wordless Wednesday – August 27th

Top: Amore family

Center: Amore Siblings minus one brother, Bervil

Bottom: Amore Siblings minus two brothers (one was taking the picture & the other was absent)

All photographs owned by: Wendy Littrell [address for private use]

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Wordless Wednesday: Meeting Mickey

Disneyland, Anaheim, California.  September 1966.
Mickey and Me.
Photo taken by Gene Amore and is now in my sister’s possession.

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Martha Jane Stern

I believe I’ve mentioned my maternal great-grandmother, Martha Jane Stern, in previous posts.  She was the mother of my mother’s mom, Vesta Christena Wilt.  Martha was born on February 9, 1872 in Clarksville, Hamilton County, Indiana to Emanuel Bushong Stern (descendent of the Stern and Bushong families) and Nancy Caylor (descendent of the Kohler/Caylor and Kinsey families).

When Martha was 18, she married 22 year old Joseph Napolean Wilt in Delaware County, Indiana on September 10, 1890.  Between July 1891 and April 1906, the couple had 4 sons and 2 daughters (it is also reported that they had a son who died at birth – but I have yet to find proper documentation).  My grandmother, Vesta, was the oldest daughter and fourth child.

When the youngest, Clifford, was a little more than two years old, the couple had separated.  I’ve written about the bench warrant that was sworn out for Joe Wilt in “An Early Divorce”. Martha’s sister, Margaret Ellen Stern, had married William Franklin (Frank) Clawson in 1882 but Margaret died in April 1908.  On New Years’ Eve 1910, Frank and Martha married and combined their families. 

The family ran a store in Anderson, Madison County, Indiana.  When my great-aunt, Nellie, was diagnosed with asthma, Martha and Frank took her and Clifford to Leaburg, Oregon.  My grandmother had already married and they were living with my grandfather’s parents.  It was many years before my grandmother saw her mother again because people just didn’t cross the country for a “visit”.  She took her grandson, my brother, to visit Grandma Clawson (which is what we all called her), when he was just a few years old.  My mom has always said that my brother met Grandma before she did. 

Frank passed away on May 23, 1923 – not too many years after they arrived in Leaburg.  After John returned from WWI, he moved to Oregon to be close to his mother.  Frank’s son, Ralph, also spent time in the Northwest.  Frank’s daughter, Nancy Clawson Welch, had moved to California and died two years before her father. 

I don’t know if Martha’s sons, Jesse and Clarence, ever saw their mother again.  I’ve not heard or read anything that mentions either one of them taking a trip out to Oregon to visit her and I know she didn’t travel east after she’d moved.

Martha died on November 6, 1956 of congestive heart failure.  She was 84 years old.  Funeral services were held at Buell Chapel and she was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Leaburg, Oregon.

I wasn’t able to meet my great-grandmother and only know her through the stories my grandmother and my mom have told me.  I also have several letters she wrote to my grandmother.  She was highly respected by her children and loved very much.

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My Grandmothers (part 2)

In my earlier post My Grandmothers, I included a photo of my maternal and paternal grandmothers. At the time that was written, that was the only picture I had of the two of them together. While on vacation at my mom’s house, I pulled out a couple other boxes of photos that I don’t think I’ve looked at for quite awhile, as well as some old photo albums. Lo and behold! I found the following photograph.

I believe this was taken in Coshocton, Ohio when my parents were married in the early 1940′s. I heard of only two instances both sets of grandparents were together – when my mom’s parents and my dad’s mom ended up in Montana for a visit with my parents in 1944 (shown in the photo on the other post) and when my parents were married. So glad that I now have two great pictures of these two women together!

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Scanning Photos & Other Updates

I had some free time this evening so I hooked the scanner up and started scanning some of the photos I brought back from my mom’s house.  I ended up scanning over 20 photos and one obituary in 90 minutes.  If you go to my College Days post, you’ll notice I inserted one more photo.

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